The philosophy of nature
March 20th, 2008 by thapke
The search for harmony and order in combination with Ostwald’s energetic imperative (“Do not waste energy, but convert it into a more useful form”) was a foundation of his activities in the organization of scholarly communication, in the system of scholarly disciplines itself, in colors and forms. He proposed a “science of order” as the basis of his “pyramid of science”. The need for standardization especially expressed in his ideas about paper formats as well as the need for a synthetic auxiliary language to facilitate international communication of science was also an outcome of his philosophical concept of order.
- Wilhelm Ostwald, Die Pyramide der Wissenschaften. Eine Einführung in wissenschaftliches Denken und Arbeiten, (Stuttgart 1929).
